Good soil deed about to be uprooted: Millions of acres of environmentally sensitive lands are being pushed out of the federal Conservation Reserve Program and, most likely, back into production. The program was created to stabilize commodity prices while saving topsoil, improving water quality and creating wildlife habit. But the always short-sighted Farm Bill's latest version reduced allowable acreage for the program. Good-bye, reestablished prairie and clearer-flowing streams; hello, combine and erosion. (Associated Press) Maybe a 50-year Farm Bill is a good idea after all?

No related posts.

2 Responsesto “Out of conservation, back to production”

A big problem surrounding real estate, conservation and land is taxation. Raw land is grossly over taxed. The raw land should be not taxed. It is the houses, the families, the businesses which put a burden on the towns. They should pay the taxes. The land is sucking up carbon. Because of the taxes alone land is often forced into production or worse yet, sub-divided and developed into homes and strip malls so the farmer can continue farming on the little bit of remaining land. We should be taxing the homes and other structures that burden the system while giving a credit for land that is kept open. You want land to get used? Tax it.

I don't think that a 50 year farm bill would be a good idea at all; at that point it would be even more difficult to get it changed. More than anything else, I think waking up the people of America and talking about the Farm Bill is what's important. Currently, nobody cares about the Farm Bill, and our legislators trade (or sell!) their votes in the Farm Bill for votes in other bills. They won't come under fire for it, because their constituency doesn't care about it at all. So we've currently got a Farm Bill that is written by a handful of senators and representatives from Midwestern states while getting lavishly showered with present from Big Ag. Obviously conservation programs will fall through.